Saint Casimir Parish

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE FOLLOWING INTENTIONS 

• That the unemployed may receive support and find the work they need to live in dignity.
                                                                                                                                             (June  Papal intention)

• That our bishops experience the power of divine love and embrace God’s people with fatherly care.
   

• That our parish will grow in holiness so that we will always love one another in the way that Christ commands us.
   

• That our civil leaders seek the wisdom to protect and promote God-given liberties, and that God bless us with the courage to defend them.
   

• That we exercise our responsibility to participate in the social life of our nation to ensure that laws do not violate the right to life and that they protect and promote life and the common good.
   

• That we recognize Jesus in the ordinary circumstances of our daily life.
   

• That grace touch and transform the lives of the poor, the sick, the unemployed, the homeless, those facing financial distress, and those enslaved by addiction.
   

• That our Ministers of Praise be validated in their belief in the power of prayer.

The following headline reminds us that martyrdom continues to this day.

Dutch priest murdered in his church in the besieged Syrian city of Homs

           St. Boniface was a missionary in the 8^th century. He is known as the apostle of the Germans. He devoted his life to the conversion of the Germanic Tribes.
           He established the foundations of faith by preaching and establishing monasteries which greatly aided in the structuring of the German Church. His activities were marked by zeal in preaching and by sensitivity to the needs of his people. In a letter he writes: “Let us stand fast in what is right…Let us wait upon God’s strengthening aid…Let us trust in Him…Let us preach the whole of God’s plan to the powerful and to the humble, to rich and to poor…as far as God gives us the strength.”
           During a final mission to the Frisians, Boniface and 53 companions were massacred by a band of angry natives while he was preparing converts for Confirmation.

Sources:  IN HIS LIKENESS by Rev. Charles E. Yost, SCJ, STL and SAINTS AND FEAST DAYS, Christ Our Life Series  
 and SAINT OF THE DAY, Leonard, O.F.M., Editor

THOUGHTS FROM THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Trinity
 

              #257  “O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!” God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the “plan of his loving kindness,” conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: “He destined us in love to be his sons” and “to be conformed to the image of his Son,” through “the spirit of sonship.” This plan is a “grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,” stemming immediately from Trinitarian love. It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church.

REFLECTION

GO FORTH

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.  (John 3:17)

         If the whole Church takes up this missionary impulse, she has to go forth to everyone without exception. But to whom should she go first? When we read the Gospel we find a clear indication: not so much our friends and wealthy neighbors, but above all the poor and the sick, those who are usually despised and overlooked, “those who cannot repay you” (Lk 14: 14). There can be no room for doubt or for explanations which weaken so clear a message. Today and always, “the poor are the privileged recipients of the Gospel,” and the fact that it is freely preached to them is a sign of the kingdom that Jesus came to establish. We have to state, without mincing words, that “there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor.” May we never abandon them.

         Let us go forth, then, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ. Here I repeat for the entire Church what I have often said to the priests and laity of Buenos Aires: I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the center and then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them something to eat” (Mk 6:37)’
 
by Pope Francis “Evangelii Gaudium”, Chapter 1, Part V, #48 and 49.